A ghoul-loving couple have revealed what it’s like to live in Britain’s most haunted village.
Andrew Ayres and wife Anita Shean moved to Pluckley, near Ashford, Kent, three years ago.
The village is home to up to 15 spirits and ghost hunter Andrew said it made sense for him and psychic Anita, 54, to move.
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It has been recognised by the Guinness World Records for being the most haunted in the country.
The 56-year-old says he loves living in the village despite experiencing things “that can’t be explained”.
Andrew claims that “scared” locals take a “dim view” of his business.
“It made sense for me to be based in the most haunted village in the country,” Andrew told What’s the Jam.
“I’ve always been interested in the unexplained and my wife is a medium.
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“When I told my friends and family we were moving to the most haunted village in the UK they asked what took us so long.
“A lot of tourists come here for the haunted aspect of it.
“There is a lot of negativity around it.
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“People who were born here don’t really embrace it because it’s an expensive place to live and really idyllic and there are people running amok in the churchyard, especially at Halloween.
“The whole ghost hunting thing is dimly viewed.
“They don’t really embrace it. Maybe they’re scared that people messing with it will make the village more haunted.”
One spirit reported to be living in Pluckley is The Watercress Lady who earned her living selling the vegetable.
It’s said that one evening, she spilled gin down her clothes and lit her pipe causing her clothing to burst into flames.
Andrew takes groups on tours of the haunted spots in the village including the local pub and hall.
He says he’s had his own experiences with incidents that can’t be explained while living in the town.
Andrew said: “I did a Ouija board in the village hall and I wasn’t touching the glass so that people didn’t think that I was pushing it.
“We asked if the spirit had a message and they said yes.
“We asked who the message was for and the glass made a beeline for me.
“My birthday was coming up on 23 October and the glass shot to two and three.
“Then it spelled out ‘Anj’ which was a nickname that my mum used to call me.
“Then it spelled out ‘birthday boy’. It was amazing. I couldn’t explain it.”
Andrew had just quit his job in online marketing to take on ghost hunting when he met Anita met 20 years ago in their local pub.
They didn’t tell each other about their jobs for weeks out of fear of putting each other off.
The pair went on to have two children.
Andrew said: “I just happened to be a ghost hunter and she just happened to be a medium.
“We were a bit reserved about telling each other what we did. It could put someone off. It could be a swipe left or swipe right moment.
“When we go on holiday and people ask what we do, we look at each other and I say that I’m a plumber and Anita works at Tesco.
“People don’t want to sit with the Addams family.”
On top of doing 600 ghost tours a year, Andrew takes calls from locals who suspect their homes are haunted.
Andrew said: “I am a skeptic. I’m an investigator. You have to have an enquiring mind.
“You can’t go round saying that everything is a ghost.
“People call me all the time asking me to check out their house because they think it’s haunted.
“I ask them to keep a diary and usually the noises they’ve been hearing will be the heating coming on and the pipes creaking.
“People from all walks of life believe. Pilots and surgeons say they’ve seen ghosts.
“I wouldn’t say I’m an expert because I don’t think you can be an expert in the unknown but I have experience. I have experienced things that can’t be explained.”
Andrew says the couple plan on spending the rest of their lives in the “charmed” village.
He added: “It’s a lovely place. It has it’s history of being haunted. It fits with what I do.
“The village has had so many good things happen to it. The Darling Buds of May was filmed here.
“A lot of blessed things have happened here for such a small place as well as the great haunted aspect
“It’s a little charmed village.”
